


The Sky is Everywhere

by iammisscullen



Category: CNCO (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Fluff, Friendship, Joerick, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 08:19:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11482383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iammisscullen/pseuds/iammisscullen
Summary: They first met when Erick was eleven and Joel was twelve. Ever since then Erick knew that Joel was a free-spirit with hands that reach up to the sky and feet that never touch the ground. Joel was meant to fly and he says so himself. And Erick’s always out of breath trying to catch up to his best friend who’s dreams surpasses the distance of the moon.





	The Sky is Everywhere

**Author's Note:**

> My first Joerick fic becos I couldn't find any. Please be gentle with me. :)
> 
> P.S.  
> Title stolen from one of my fave writer's book: The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson

_'I fell in love with the way you touched me without using your hands.'  
_ **-Anon**

**(August 2016)**

They first met when Erick was eleven and Joel was twelve. Ever since then Erick knew that Joel was a free-spirit with hands that reach up to the sky and feet that never touch the ground. Joel was meant to fly and he says so himself. And Erick’s always out of breath trying to catch up to his best friend who’s dreams surpasses the distance of the moon.

The hope doesn’t die in his chest though, that maybe one day he’ll be able to cope with Joel’s pace; that he himself will grow wings and learn to fly where Joel is.

But right now, two weeks before September – five days before Joel moves to his new dormroom in his new school: UCLA – Erick thought he was ready for this. He saw this day coming, being separated from his best friend as time catches up with them, slowly weaning them to the real world. Joel’s off to university in a few days while he’s going to be stuck in highschool for another school year. Maybe he should have taken all those AP classes in the hope to graduate early – to graduate with Joel, to escape New Mexico together like they’ve talked about when they were naïve boys who knew nothing beyond the border.

They’re in Joel’s room, three brown boxes sealed tight at the foot of the older boy’s bed. His stroller is good to go as well, Erick notices but ignores. Joel’s really ready to leave.

‘Yo,’ he says as a greeting and sits at the bottom edge of the unmade bed. He’s grateful the bed isn’t shed off of their sheets because that would have made the magnitude of the situation all true. ‘I see you’ve already packed.’

Joel smiles – all big and excited. His brown eyes are swimming with happiness that Erick’s scared to look at because that joy etched there had required his absence. 

‘My mama keeps on pestering me about it,’ Joel explains and sits down beside Erick. Their knees touching in the process.

Erick can smell Joel – all sweat and that earthy smell that is so Joel. The same scent clings on the wrinkled blanket behind him. He’s going to miss that smell.

They sit together in silence, Erick looking around the room where he spent a majority of time sleeping over when they were young. He’ll never see this room again and its uneven hue walls of blue with Ed Sheeran poster, and a cabinet of vinyl collection.

‘You’re not bringing your vinyl?’ he asks and if there’s relief underneath his tone Joel doesn’t hear it.

The other boy chuckles like Erick asked the silliest question. ‘I’m going away to uni,  _ amigo _ ,’ he begins, ‘not transferring home.’

He doesn’t point out to his older best friend that it feels like the same. He doesn’t say that he can sense Joel won’t be coming back in their small hometown where the sky doesn’t look as wide. Deep down he knows that Joel deserves a much larger horizon where his  _ amigo  _ can spread his wings fully and reach his dreams.

Maybe it’s wrong to romanticise America that way and for undermining his own state country, but the fact still remains that a larger sets of opportunities awaits anyone – especially someone as amazing and persistent as Joel – across the border.

Suddenly, Joel pulls him close in a side hug and everything else leaves Erick’s mind – the worries, the sadness, the longing. All that sits inside his brain is the familiar warmth and touch and scent. 

This is the shape of the body he knows – the arms he depends on when life gets tough while growing up. Maybe it’s also wrong to make homes out of people, but right now, he feels at home. And Joel’s arm doesn‘t seem like a bad place to settle down.

He’s really going to miss his best friend, his first love, his confidant.

‘You’ll be there in a year,  _ si _ ?’ Joel plactates.

He nods weakly against Joel’s shoulder where he unconsciously leans his head. It’s a gesture so natural his conscious mind doesn’t even register.

‘Just a year,’ Joel repeats.

And Erick doesn’t say anything, doesn’t point out that a year cannot be measured equally in seconds or minutes or days. A year seems infinite when the possibilities of scenarios that could happen are also endless.

Sometimes a year isn’t a year or three hundred and sixty-five days at all. Sometimes it’ll feel like a lifetime.

‘We’ll always be under the same sky,’ Joel adds in a soothing voice that Erick will surely miss. ‘I’ll just have a better internet connection.’

He can hear the small smile in Joel’s voice and he can’t help but snort at that, ebbing whatever melancholy that tried to seep within his pores.

‘No excuse to not Skype me,’ he points out.

‘Definitely.’ There’s that smile in Joel’s voice again that Erick shouldn’t recognise but he does. Or maybe his heart does.

**

**(August 2017)**

Erick’s all made up of nerves and anxiety. He’s not sure how he’s going to keep himself from fainting. He had sent his parents away after dropping him off in front of his dorm because he can’t stand another tear-painted episode.

His mum already cried three weeks ago when he first started packing, and then again four days ago when he was done with the packing. His mother also cried last night before he entred his room, then another set of tears as his  _ papi  _ helped him load all his things on the back of their old pick-up truck. He’s sure his  _ mami  _ cried too as they entred  California. And surely, more tears were shed when they got to UCLA. And every tear he sees makes him want to crawl back to their truck and ask his parents to take him back home with them.

But that won’t do. How will he ever learn to be independent? How will he ever learn to spread his own wings?

So, off he sends his parents after embracing them tightly for one last time. His  _ papi _ ’s eyes have tears threatening to spill as well which are harder to ignore – they’ll make his resolve go weaker a hundred times more. Because it’s one thing to see his mama tear up, it’s a whole different if it’s his father.

‘Erick,’ someone calls and he turns because he knows that voice.

Of course it’s Joel, all white teeth out in a huge grin. His hair still a curly mess just a bit longer, and his eyes the same warm brown that Erick remembers.

And before Erick can register all the changes about his best friend and be nervous about all those changes, he’s envelop in a tight hug that fills his coherency with a familiar scent. The anxiety’s ebb as the earthy smell of Joel blankets him.

‘I miss you so much,  _ loco _ ,’ Joel whispers against his neck where the boy’s buried his face.

They’ve kept in touch but life and schoolwork got in the way most of time. And Joel didn’t came down for Thanksgiving or Christmas, spending it with some uni friend’s house in Santa Monica to finish some project. Summer came and Joel didn’t go home too because he had a part-time job at Starbucks to help his parents with his tuition fees.

And in the infinite span of time other people measured as year, Erick’s been anxious about his stand in Joel’s life. If they’ll comeback to their old routines and status in each other’s life, or it’ll be awkward. 

He’s nervous that Joel must have changed a lot, that the other boy’s fully developed his wings and leaving to fly so far, far away from him when Erick’s only trying to master how not to fall.

Joel always wanted to fly. And a year without Erick could have catapulted him beyond the stratosphere where Erick can’t reach him.

But as Joel’s familiar heartbeat strums against Erick’s chest, he remembers what the older boy always tells him:  _ we’re always under the same sky _ . Joel will never be too far, he always makes sure that Erick can always count on him. They’re best of friends. They’re two peas in a pod.

They’re  _ always  _ under the same sky.

_ Fin. _

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! :) xoxo


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